E body exhaust into A body

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MidnightSwinger

MidnightSwinger

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I am picking up some parts tomorrow and the guy is giving me a complete dual exhaust from a 1970 Baracuda. It’s new, 2.5”, good mufflers.

Will I be able to make this work in my 1974 Dart Swinger? I know the lengths might be off and I’m sure the head pipe will need to be custom. Just curious if anyone has done this. Seems like it might be a way for me to save $$ on my V8 swap and get it done sooner.

Thanks
Jared
 
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If you enough fab skills, I think it could work. I've installed numerous Summit Racing prefab kits on A,B, and E-Body cars. All very similar. There seems to be enough "length" on the prefab pipes to be able to shorten to "fit" an A-body. This is my opinion, I could be wrong........
 
No. Look up Mopar exhaust on the net. Look at the part numbers between the 2 applications. If numbers match you are golden. They won't though. They are different cars.
 
Back in the 80s, I put 70 Dart 340 manifolds and front pipes on a 71 E body. They were close enough for my purpose.
Going from an E to an A for free? It is worth a shot.
 
ragtopfury said:
Back in the 80s, I put 70 Dart 340 manifolds and front pipes on a 71 E body. They were close enough for my purpose.
Going from an E to an A for free? It is worth a shot.
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Hahaha! I got ya. I rigged all sorts of parts on my early cars back in the day. I thought us Mopar guys had a little moreclass for doing things right. Just sayin'
 
Although I agree with @toolmanmike when he says it won't fit, I also agree with @408 swinger when he says it might work if @Nirvana's Fab skills are good. I believe I could do it. I might need a few extra feet of 2.5" pipe (straight and curves), but I think it might be doable.
 
IMO- I'd try and sell it to an E body owner and use the money towards a bolt on.
 
Thanks for the discourse guys. I might as well mock it up and see what’s what. My fab skills are decent, but my welding skills lack so this would be farmed out to a trusted exhaust shop.

The only reason I thought to try it is because it’s a new system, and I doubt many e body guys want it because it’s for a big block with stock manifolds. So it will probably otherwise end up in the scrap pile.
My thoughts on it being worthwhile are based on them both being torsion bar front suspension, relatively similar in size with a solid rear axle. One would think that the routing would be similar especially around the rear axle.

The part I am almost positive it will need work is the head pipes coming right off the manifold. Same motor in both cars, with the same manifolds. But considerably less room in the A Body.

Jared
 
The head pipes are very different. The mid pipes don't matter all that much and could be adapted. The tail pipes are more different than you might think.

Can it be adapted? Sure, cut and weld and away you go. But the time it will take may not be worth it. There are plenty of E-body guys that keep their cars really stock, because that's how they're worth the most. You might be surprised about selling it. I'd certainly try before I paid somebody to adapt it. Especially since the labor costs are high and the cost of a Summit kit for an A-body it pretty low. A few hours of work and you've nearly matched the price of a new system.
 
72bluNblu said:
The head pipes are very different. The mid pipes don't matter all that much and could be adapted. The tail pipes are more different than you might think.

Can it be adapted? Sure, cut and weld and away you go. But the time it will take may not be worth it. There are plenty of E-body guys that keep their cars really stock, because that's how they're worth the most. You might be surprised about selling it. I'd certainly try before I paid somebody to adapt it. Especially since the labor costs are high and the cost of a Summit kit for an A-body it pretty low. A few hours of work and you've nearly matched the price of a new system.
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Those thoughts definitely bounced around in my mind before posting. It wouldn’t be worth more than throwing $200 into IMO. I will also probably want the 3in pipes in the future anyway. But money is tight, and I want to swap the big block in and drive it.
 
Nirvana said:
Those thoughts definitely bounced around in my mind before posting. It wouldn’t be worth more than throwing $200 into IMO. I will also probably want the 3in pipes in the future anyway. But money is tight, and I want to swap the big block in and drive it.
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Hey I get it, I've definitely plumbed the exhaust on more than a couple vehicles with leftover pipes, generic parts and a few extra connectors and elbows.

But that's mostly because I can do the work myself. And honestly some of the stuff I did in the past I wouldn't do again, I'd just buy the right kit to begin with. If it can be done for $200 or less I don't think it's a bad plan at all. Just realize that at some point it's probably more cost effective to just buy the right kit!
 
72bluNblu said:
Hey I get it, I've definitely plumbed the exhaust on more than a couple vehicles with leftover pipes, generic parts and a few extra connectors and elbows.

But that's mostly because I can do the work myself. And honestly some of the stuff I did in the past I wouldn't do again, I'd just buy the right kit to begin with. If it can be done for $200 or less I don't think it's a bad plan at all. Just realize that at some point it's probably more cost effective to just buy the right kit!
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Does anyone make a bolt on manifold back exhaust system for a big block A body? Accurate LTD has the reproduction stock style maybe? I’m going to have to go custom with the head pipes no matter what I believe.

it’s $483.08 for the summit A body 2.5”(just to compare apples to apples.) shipped with tax to my door. Add to that paying my exhaust shop to fabricate the head pipes and attach them to the summit kit. Best case scenario is $650-750 I think. 483 for the kit and 175-275 for 2-4 shop hours and materials.
 
Ugh, yeah, headpipes. I think Accurate and TTI are your only real options for ordering headpipes to fit manifolds for a big block A-body.

I'm not sure how much use the E-body headpipes will be though, there's a lot more room on an E-body, and the headpipe is where that gets real obvious. They may have to build one either way.
 
72bluNblu said:
Ugh, yeah, headpipes. I think Accurate and TTI are your only real options for ordering headpipes to fit manifolds for a big block A-body.

I'm not sure how much use the E-body headpipes will be though, there's a lot more room on an E-body, and the headpipe is where that gets real obvious. They may have to build one either way.
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I’ve got all the parts except the mounts to convert the slant six K frame. Once I get the 383 bolted in I can get a real idea of how the ebody head pipes line up. I will definitely take pictures,and if it seems worthwhile to make it work, Ill document it.
 
I'm in the sell it to an E body guy camp. Then you can get a dedicated A body system.
 
About 1990 I put the 273 out of my 67 Barracuda into my 73 Barracuda, the 73 had no exhaust so I tried to put the 67 exhaust in. The head pipe hit something and made the muffler hang low, way too low to be practice. I ended up having the pipe to the rear of the wye replaced and ran with just a muffler and no tailpipe.

With yours being the other way around you might find an area or two to make some cuts to make it work. If you can do the work yourself great but if not it might be cheaper to just have it done.


Alan
 
Nirvana said:
Thanks for the discourse guys. I might as well mock it up and see what’s what. My fab skills are decent, but my welding skills lack so this would be farmed out to a trusted exhaust shop.

The only reason I thought to try it is because it’s a new system, and I doubt many e body guys want it because it’s for a big block with stock manifolds. So it will probably otherwise end up in the scrap pile.
My thoughts on it being worthwhile are based on them both being torsion bar front suspension, relatively similar in size with a solid rear axle. One would think that the routing would be similar especially around the rear axle.

The part I am almost positive it will need work is the head pipes coming right off the manifold. Same motor in both cars, with the same manifolds. But considerably less room in the A Body.

Jared
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Sell it to a B body guy. Their a pretty close match. Kim
 
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